Sadie King

From the moment she stepped off the helicopter all fur coat, bling shades and dazzling diamonds, it was clear that Sadie King meant business.

The bitchy blonde, who married wealthy Tom King's (Ken Farrington) eldest son Jimmy (Nick Miles), took an instant dislike to her father-in-law's ex-fiancée Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins), and made her feelings very clear. She was best friends with her sister-in-law, Colleen (Melanie Ash), then married to Jimmy's brother, Carl (Tom Lister). She wasn't happy when he began dating Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter).

While her hatred of Charity was intense, Sadie was also rapidly going off her husband. Jimmy was a simple man who wanted a big family and his pretty wife by his side. Sadie, however, had other ideas and had contraceptive injections behind his back. When he forced the issue, Sadie came clean but her deception jeopardised their marriage, with a devastated Jimmy furiously demanding a divorce.

Sick of being rejected by Jimmy, Sadie began an affair with local mechanic Robert Sugden (Karl Davies) – who couldn’t believe his luck. Her love life might have been complicated, but Sadie's big interest was money. Knowing that Jimmy's rejection meant her position in the King family was threatened, Sadie began to hatch a plan to ensure Charity never became Tom's wife.

Employing a private detective to trail Charity, Sadie bribed her relative and lover Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) to get Charity in a compromising position.

With Tom already unable to contain his jealousy over Charity, Sadie put in the final dose of poison by giving him the incriminating photos on his wedding day. She had successfully sabotaged the wedding, but Sadie's actions were going to cost her dearly. Charity decided to wage war against her nemesis by sleeping with Jimmy and videotaping the whole event. In the film, Jimmy revealed everything about Sadie's plots, her alliance with Cain and the state of their marriage. A triumphant Charity burst into Jimmy's birthday party and told everyone present that they'd been having an affair, much to the fury of Sadie and the King family. Charity played the tape after she was accused of trying to cause trouble between Sadie and Jimmy.

The repercussions saw Tom disown Jimmy and Sadie, their marriage ended and Sadie found herself alone. She had no intention of losing everything - while she knew her marriage was beyond saving, Sadie launched a bid to get back into the family business. Enlisting Cain's help again, Sadie purchased land the Kings wanted for their development and blackmailed her way back into the company. She may have got what she wanted in terms of money, but she wasn’t welcomed back into the fold by Tom.

Lonely, isolated and desperate - she slept with Cain – much to his delight. When she rejected his advances later, Cain took a terrible revenge by killing her beloved dog, Damon. However, while Sadie was devastated by Damon’s murder, she had no intention of resting on her laurels. When Jimmy and Carl's youngest brother Max (Charlie Kemp) got killed in a road collision, Sadie used Tom's vulnerability to her advantage and was back in the fold after blackmailing his business rival Zoe Tate (Leah Bracknell) into selling Home Farm to the Kings. This impressed Tom as he was sought to own Home Farm to further establish his family empire. Later on, Tom became so grateful to Sadie that he even made a move on her. But, although it would have been the answer to all her problems, Sadie could not bring herself to have sex with Tom - unsurprisingly.

It soon transpired that Sadie's eldest brother-in-law, Matthew (Matt Healy), had been in love with her for years and they even slept together on the day before she married Jimmy. Now they were both free, the couple started sleeping together again and Matthew, for the first time, let his guard down. Things were looking perfect for the pair as Tom prepared to step down as head of the company and hand it over to Matthew. But just before he signed on the dotted line, Jimmy exposed the couple's affair and Tom went mad. He gave Matthew a choice – be with Sadie or take over the company. Matthew chose the business, leaving Sadie devastated. She retreated to lick her wounds, but Sadie was back with a vengeance just weeks later.

Having snared a rich fiancé in the form of dimwitted Alasdair Sinclair (Ray Coulthard), she was a marriage ceremony away from being filthy rich again. But there were two problems standing in her way, Alasdair's manipulative and suspicious mother Rosemary (Linda Thorson) and ex-lover Matthew. Even though Sadie managed to get him down the aisle, it was the briefest marriage ever. Stopping her outside the church, Matthew confessed his undying love for Sadie and gave up King & Sons. Alasdair punched Matthew, but Sadie chose her ex-lover and Alasdair accepted her choice before leaving the church with his family. Tom subsequently threw him out of the family and the couple were left on their own. Sadie had no intention of being left with nothing and was soon coming up with ways to get Matthew back in business. Upon hearing that haulage rival Don Clough was selling his business, Sadie encouraged Matthew to buy it and dupe his brothers into believing false information that jeopardized their own bid. Their plan worked, but in the process Matthew was further alienated by his family – with Carl becoming distant as well.

Sadie soon resolved to ensure that her man and her business do brilliantly at the expense of anyone who gets in their way. This later involved her paying Cain to vandalize the Kings River's Showhome, which later exploded and ended up causing the deaths of three people - including local resident Dawn (Julia Mallam). Earlier on Jimmy confronted Sadie about her sabotage before the explosion, which thereupon left the pair in danger and Sadie in a position where she could save Jimmy's life. However, she instead knocked him out with the intent of killing him, but Jimmy survived and told Matthew about her actions. When Matthew learned from Cain that he and Sadie were having an affair, he confronted her and she confessed to staging the house explosion in order to sabotage King & Sons. Matthew responded by ending his relationship with Sadie and was welcomed back into the family. Following the breakup, Sadie became hell bent on getting even with the King family.

In light of the house explosion, Sadie devised a plan with Cain to kidnap Tom. In the end, Cain informed Sadie he was departing with the £2,500,000 and without her, and fled by helicopter; Sadie was left with nothing except a BMW and was not seen again.

The last reference to Sadie was when she sent flowers to Tom's funeral. However, the flowers were discarded by Matthew. When Cain returned to the village in 2009, after being confronted by Jimmy and Carl, he asked Jimmy "Heard from your ex-wife recently?", referring to Sadie.

Kensit's portrayal of Sadie earned her the "Best Bitch" award at the 2005 and 2006 Inside Soap Award ceremonies, respectively.[2] She was also nominated for "Sexiest Female" at the 2006 British Soap Awards.[2] Sadie's and Cain's exit was nominated for "Best Single episode" the 2007 British Soap Awards.[3]

The scenes during the episode featuring Sadie and Cain's exit where they kidnap Tom King and Cain appears to shoot Sadie received 37 complaints to media regulator Ofcom. ITV defended the storyline by saying it was one of the most "exciting and successful" events in the serial's history and added "Whilst Emmerdale stories do not condone violent acts, it need not and should not shy away from them." 8.5 million viewers tuned in for the episode.[4]

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